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Worthless United Nations security contingent


I posted this years ago but I see it's gone so I am going to rewrite it.

Did anyone get pissed off at the end of the movie when the U.S. Army survivors and the Delta Force struggle to reach the safety of the United Nations security compound, commanded by an appointed Pakistani general.

The Pakistani general angrily commands the compound soldiers not to get involved and not to go outside to rescue the Americans. The Somali 'skinnys' are right behind them. Only when the Americans reach the very gates of the compound does the Pakistani general order the doors opened to allow the bedraggled Americans inside. Inside, the Americans are finally safe. Only if the 'skinnys' attempt to forcibly enter the compound will they get shot at.

Initially I was real angry at the worthless, spineless Pakistani general but upon retrospect, he was only following orders from the United Nations security high command. So it really wasn't his fault. But I was still pissed at the United Nations for being totally spineless, backboneless, and worse, only pretending to intervene in a country at civil war by just about throwing the Americans under the bus. This is why so many UN critics today mock the UN as a paper institution.

President Bush (the elder) was reluctant for good reasons to intervene in the Somali civil war. But he was so pressured by the American media moguls who published front page newspapers demanding the U.S. intervene and the Democrats that he reluctantly gave in and sent the Marines and then smaller U.S. Army contingents who were immediately outnumbered and attacked.

All America did was unite the Somali factions and the people against a 'common' invader, albeit temporarily. Once the television screens showed the Somali city people dragging the dead body of a near-nude Marine helicopter pilot through the main streets of Mogadishu, American public, political, and media support for the Somalis collapsed...totally. New President Clinton wisely pulled every American serviceman out fast. No one in America complained. Somalia dropped off the television news and the chagrined newspapers just as fast. The Somalis almost immediately went back at each other's throats. There was some news, unsubstantiated, that there were people in Somalia who understood their mistake and wanted the Americans to return. Somalia changed American foreign policy. The U.S. became hesitant of foreign intervention. The exception was the U.S. intervention in the former Yugoslavia, due to the urgent cries for help from the European governments. This was ultimately successful. The next President, George Bush, expressed his desire to focus on internal American matters and refrain from foreign entanglements. OH, BY THE WAY, THE BUSH-HATERS conveniently forgot about that. The European governments openly expressed their fear that America would withdraw its intervention from the apocalypse that was the Yugoslavian civil wars and genocide. OH, BY THE WAY, the European Bush-haters conveniently forgot that.

Then came 9/11, and President Bush switched his attention from internal matters to revenge in Afghanistan and then nation-building in Iraq after Saddam Hussein broke the 1991 Desert Storm armistice agreement. OH, BY THE WAY, people forgot about that, too. I will admit, however, that Afghanistan and Iraq, failed, despite America's best efforts and billions of dollars
The left wing democrats and the Europeans started screaming their hatred of George Bush as a cowboy meddler in other countries, and succeeded in changing the history books. To this day, Bush is highly despised in the United Kingdom, only behind the German emperor William Kaiser of WWI and Adolf Hitler of WWII, and just before Napoleon Bonaparte. Half of the American population have been taught to hate and despise Bush, too, which remains today.

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President Bush (the elder) was reluctant for good reasons to intervene in the Somali civil war. But he was so pressured by the American media moguls who published front page newspapers demanding the U.S. intervene and the Democrats that he reluctantly gave in and sent the Marines and then smaller U.S. Army contingents who were immediately outnumbered and attacked.

I think you meant to write about President Clinton there. This happened under his 1st term in office, Bush was gone by this point. His problem was Desert Storm/Gulf War, not the mission in Somalia.

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Actually, Bush was still in office when the U.S. first intervened in Somalia in 92. Although, yes, Clinton was in office when this mission took place.

As for the OP, I'm not sure where in the movie you saw a Pakistani General refuse to let soldiers out to help the TFR guys. A Malaysian APC driver refuses to let them in his APC but that was because there wasn't any room left. Earlier they talk about a Pakistani General, but all that is said is "Since we didn't deem to inform him of the raid, it's gonna take some time to mobilize the 10th Mountain and a hundred vehicles".

There was no argument in the movie that they wouldn't go, just that since they didn't have advance notice, it would take a lot of time to organize all of the QRF forces involved.

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I know men who were in the battle and you better believe that the Paks did not want to go help the Rangers.

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Actually, Bush was still in office when the U.S. first intervened in Somalia in 92. Although, yes, Clinton was in office when this mission took place.

Okay. Thanks for detailing that for me. You're right that the intervention started happening under Bush's last year prior to Clinton winning the election and taking over as President in 1993.

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I don't remember that scene either And I just saw it on Encore the other night. Is there a directors cut or extended version with it out there?

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